NAPLAN State report – Year 3...NAPLAN State report – Year 3 Queensland Curriculum & Assessment...

XX

XX

X

NAPLAN State report – Year 3

December 2017

© The State of Queensland (Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority) 2017

Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority PO Box 307 Spring Hill QLD 4004 Australia 154 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane

Phone: (07) 3864 0299 Email: [email protected] Website: www.qcaa.qld.edu.au

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/

Contents

Preface ______________________________________________ 1

Who should use this State report? .............................................................................. 1

About the tests ............................................................................................................. 1

Marking and scoring the tests ..................................................................................... 2

Using NAPLAN reports to inform teaching and learning ............................................. 2

Other NAPLAN reports ................................................................................................ 3

Literacy ______________________________________________ 6

Writing ................................................................................................................ 6

Stimulus (writing prompt) Years 3 & 5 ......................................................................... 6

About the task .............................................................................................................. 7

Performance ................................................................................................................ 7

Sample script ............................................................................................................... 9

Commentary on sample script ................................................................................... 11

Language conventions ..................................................................................... 12

Spelling ...................................................................................................................... 12

Grammar and punctuation ......................................................................................... 15

Reading ............................................................................................................ 18

Numeracy ___________________________________________ 23

About the test ............................................................................................................. 25

Performance .............................................................................................................. 25

Implications for teaching ............................................................................................ 26

NAPLAN

State report – Year 3

Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority

December 2017

Page 1 of 26

Preface

The QCAA issues State reports on the performance of Queensland students on the National

Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. State reports provide system-

level information and are publicly available. This report for Year 3 students in 2017 contains:

• the Queensland performance on each item

• the national performance on each item

• the item descriptors

• a commentary on the state results

• some recommendations for teaching.

Who should use this State report?

The NAPLAN State reports help principals, teachers and other school personnel understand,

interpret and use information about student performance on NAPLAN.

School principals can use this report to provide information to the school community on aspects

of the tests. This would allow professional conversations with their teachers, curriculum leaders,

and department heads. Curriculum leaders can use this information to interpret the more specific

information given in their school and class reports. These other reports are explained below.

Since this report is publicly available on the QCAA website, it can also inform providers of teacher

training, special education services and educational research and policy.

Parents and carers can use this report to interpret the results on their child’s student report. They

are also able to judge how their child performed when compared with the whole population of

students. The item descriptors provide them with useful information about the scope of the tests.

About the tests

The purpose of the National Assessment Program (NAP) is to collect information that

governments, education authorities and schools can use to identify the important educational

skills Australian students can demonstrate.. As part of that program, the NAPLAN tests are

administered to full cohorts of students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 each year. These standardised

tests are sources of information about literacy and numeracy learning that can be used to inform

educational policy and current educational practice.

The NAPLAN tests were developed using the nationally agreed Statements of Learning for

English and Statements of Learning for Mathematics, 2005. Since 2016 however, the tests now

directly relate to the Australian Curriculum. The NAPLAN tests are designed to provide a

nationally comparable indication of student performance in Language conventions, Writing,

Reading and Numeracy. The tests are designed to assess student understanding in the following

areas:

Language conventions: The test assesses the ability of students to independently recognise

and use correct Standard Australian English grammar, punctuation and spelling in written

contexts.

Writing: The test assesses the ability of students to convey thoughts, ideas and information

through the independent construction of a written text in Standard Australian English.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 2 of 26

Reading: The test assesses the ability of students independently to make meaning from

written Standard Australian English texts, including those with some visual elements.

Numeracy: The test assesses students’ knowledge of mathematics, their ability to apply that

knowledge in context independently, and their ability to reason mathematically.

Marking and scoring the tests

Marking the tests

Markers mark those test items that do not use a multiple-choice format. These markers apply

nationally-agreed marking guides. There are marking guides for open-ended Reading items if any

such items are included. Marking guides allow consistent and reliable judgements by markers.

There are guides for the Writing test and one each for the constructed responses in Numeracy

and Spelling. For some Numeracy items, students may provide a correct response in different

forms. Professional officers decide on agreed scoring protocols for these items.

Calculating raw scores

The simplest calculation made in scoring the tests is the raw score — the number of questions

answered correctly. All of the questions for the Language conventions, Reading and Numeracy

tests are marked as either correct or incorrect. Raw scores for the Writing test are sums of the

marks on each of ten criteria.

Raw scores have limited use. They enable the performance of students who have all completed

the same test at the same time to be placed in a rank order, but they do not provide information

about the level of difficulty of the test nor the relative differences between students.

Constructing scaled scores and bands

To make raw scores more useful, they are transferred to scores on a common scale that reflects

how difficult it was to achieve each score. Each year ACARA publishes equivalence tables that

allow a student’s raw score to be located on the NAPLAN scale. The scale is comparable

between year levels for each assessment area. An equating process is also carried out on each

year’s test to enable scores to be compared between successive years of testing. For example, a

raw score of 20 on the Year 3 Reading test might be transformed to a scaled score of 354. This

will also represent the same achievement for a student with the same scaled score in Year 5, and

for a student with the same scaled score for Reading in a previous year.

Each NAPLAN scale is divided into ten bands used to report student progress.

Using NAPLAN reports to inform teaching and learning

Using scaled scores

The scaled score can compare the results of different students. Scaled scores provide a basis for

measuring and comparing students’ abilities across years of schooling, for example, comparing a

student’s result in Year 3 in 2015 and Year 5 in 2017. The scales can thus help to monitor the

growth of groups of students over time. This enables the school to review and/or consolidate

special programs that may have been put in place.

Principals and teachers should take care when making comparisons between small groups of

students. For groups of fewer than 10 students, differences may not be reliable, particularly small

differences.

https://www.nap.edu.au/information/glossary#b

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 3 of 26

Using item analysis

While the national and state reports provide the comparative data, class reports provide a school

with the information that can be used to inform teaching and learning and to build capacity in

schools. Analysis of the NAPLAN class data, in particular the performance on each item, will

provide teachers with information about the understandings and patterns of misunderstandings of

students.

Looking at the performance on the items and then analysing the error patterns allows teachers

and principals to make hypotheses about why groups of students make particular errors. As

mentioned below, more detailed analysis by QCAA staff is available from the QCAA website.

Steps for analysis might be as follows:

Compare the facility rates (percentage correct) achieved by the school’s students with the

national and state results available in this document. Is their performance consistent?

Look at the common errors made by their students and compare them with the common errors

made in the state (only errors from Queensland students are available, and are found in the

item analyses that are part of SunLANDA Online).

Form hypotheses about why students are making these errors, e.g.

- How did students think about this aspect of the curriculum?

- What misunderstandings might these errors represent?

- How might the structure of the test question have shaped the response?

Using a combination of the NAPLAN data, school data and professional judgment, teachers may

then test these hypotheses to see whether they are valid or whether there is more to be thought

about and investigated. Teachers can then plan lessons related to the general areas where

students seem to need help. Teachers can also make judgments about teaching approaches and

curriculum.

The professional conversations that are part of this process are the most effective and powerful

way to use the data, as they are the vehicle for developing shared understandings.

Placing the tests in the assessment context

The results from the NAPLAN tests should be seen as only one input into a school’s assessment

program. Various forms of assessment are needed to inform the different stages of the teaching

and learning cycle. Principals and teachers should keep in mind that NAPLAN is a pencil-and-

paper, point-in-time, timed test that can only cover a few curriculum features.

The results from a school’s own assessments of students should be consistent with the NAPLAN

test results. If the test results are different from what was expected, consider the possible

reasons. The results of the tests may indicate aspects of student performance that need further

investigation within the classroom, using other forms of assessment.

An item with a low facility rate (percentage correct) may not necessarily indicate a problem in

teaching and learning. It may be that this was simply a difficult item for all students in this cohort

across Australia.

Other NAPLAN reports

In addition to the State reports, the following reports are produced:

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 4 of 26

SunLANDA Online

Since 2015, student data has been released on the QCAA School Portal using the SunLANDA

Online interface. State schools can access the data through One School. Access to SunLANDA

as application software is also still available on the QCAA website.

SunLANDA Online provides class and school information in an electronic form that permits

customised spreadsheet generation by users. In addition, it shows representative samples of

students’ incorrect responses to constructed responses where applicable. Hyperlinks from within

SunLANDA Online lead to the QCAA’s test item analysis. Information on how to use this service

is available at: www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/sunlanda/accessing-

navigating-sunlanda

Test Item analysis

These pdf documents contain analysis of each test item. They can be downloaded directly from

the QCAA website. The analysis reproduces each item followed by expert analyses of how the

item operated. It shows the distractors presented in multiple-choice items and explains students’

reasoning.

School and class reports

The NAPLAN school and class reports are supplied electronically on the secure section of the

QCAA website. These reports are accessible only with the school’s Brief Identification Code (BIC)

login and password. Individual student reports are distributed to schools as printed copies.

School reports

The QCAA issues NAPLAN School reports giving information about each school’s performance.

They provide a summary of year-level performance as well as performance by gender, language

background and Indigenous status in the following fields:

distribution of scaled scores

distribution of achievement bands

school and state means

participation of the group.

The School report positions a school’s performance within the state on a graph that is shaded to

show the range of performance for the middle 60% of Queensland students together with the

state mean.

Class reports

The QCAA issues NAPLAN class reports that show the performance of every student on every

item. Under the name of each student is recorded the items they had correct and incorrect. They

also show students’ responses to constructed-response items.

The class report also gives the:

percentage correct for each item for the class and state, and by gender

scaled scores for each student

performance bands for each student.

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/sunlanda/accessing-navigating-sunlanda

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/sunlanda/accessing-navigating-sunlanda

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 5 of 26

Individual student reports

The QCAA issues individual student reports to schools after the tests. Schools receive one

printed report for each student to distribute to parents/carers.

ACARA Reports

As well as the Queensland reports from the QCAA, national reports are available from the

website of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). The

NAPLAN National Summary Report and the NAPLAN National Report allow states and territories

to place the achievement of their students in relation to their peers across the nation. This is

system-level information and is publicly available.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 6 of 26

Literacy

Writing

Stimulus (writing prompt) Years 3 & 5

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 7 of 26

About the task

In 2017, the NAPLAN Writing test was based on the persuasive genre. Two prompts were used,

one for Years 3 & 5 and another for Years 7 & 9. The test conditions and administration remained

the same as in previous years, i.e. teachers delivered the same spoken instructions and read the

text aloud to students. Working independently, students had to plan, compose and edit a written

response. Students were allowed five minutes to plan their script, 30 minutes to write and a

further five minutes to edit and complete the task. Three pages were provided for students to

write a response.

The 2017 prompt for Years 3 & 5 was titled Which is better? Students were asked, in the textual component of the prompt, to convince the reader that one thing is better than another. Some textual examples — a game, a TV show, an invention — were provided as suggestions. Additional information identified the structural components of a persuasive text and further defined these elements, e.g. Start with an introduction. An introduction lets the reader know what you are going to write about. Other notes were also provided in relation to the conventions associated with a writing task, e.g. write in sentences, check and edit your writing etc. Six photographic images accompanied by a further six adjacent comparative images were provided, e.g. a dog and a cat, fast food and healthy food.

The prompt was relatively open-ended, allowing students to base their writing on one or more of

the comparative images provided, or one or more things of their own choice. Though the prompt

indicated singularity (i.e. Which one is better?), nationally agreed convention permitted students

to widen the comparison. Students who chose to mention a number of things did risk some loss

of cohesion in their persuasive texts.

Markers for this Writing test were trained using the national persuasive writing marker training

package, delivered as part of ACARA’s national assessment program. Markers were recruited

and trained in accordance with national protocols. For Queensland, registered teachers marked

the NAPLAN Writing test. All markers applied the 10 criteria and related standards from the

marking rubric. Writing test scripts were marked on screen in all states and territories. Stringent

quality-control measures were applied to the marking of student scripts, including a prescribed

percentage of scripts to be double-marked, and the daily application nationally of control scripts

for all markers. As part of the Queensland marking operation for 2017, referee marking further

ensured marker reliability. There was also provision for appeal over individual Writing test scores

after the results were released. On appeal, a student’s script was re-marked independently by

two senior Writing test markers. A copy of the Persuasive Writing Marking Guide (2013) is

available at: www.nap.edu.au/_resources/Amended_2013_Persuasive_Writing_Marking_Guide_-

With_cover.pdf

Performance

Anecdotal evidence from markers indicated that students in Years 3 and 5 were comfortable with

the writing prompt, Which is better? The images provided were widely adopted by students as the

basis for their persuasive texts, particularly the dogs/cats contrast. Cats did not generally fare well

in these contrasts! A ‘tour the stimulus’ approach was less evident in 2017 than in some previous

years. The relatively small group of students who diverged from the images provided on the

prompt tended to write more challenging texts, though this was not exclusively so. In fact,

students with a more sophisticated grasp of language were able to embed stylistic elements into

the simple cat/dog or country/city comparison to provide a stronger sense of voice.

A closer adherence to the suggestions provided on the stimulus page appeared to be reflective of

a general appropriateness for the age levels, rather than some absence of originality of ideas.

At first thought, the inclusion of a comparative element to the persuasive task may have provided

greater challenge for younger writers but generally this was not evident. Students continued to

http://www.nap.edu.au/_resources/Amended_2013_Persuasive_Writing_Marking_Guide_-With_cover.pdf

http://www.nap.edu.au/_resources/Amended_2013_Persuasive_Writing_Marking_Guide_-With_cover.pdf

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 8 of 26

adopt fairly formulaic approaches to this persuasive text type, and whilst this broadly met the

demands of the task (and rubric), it restricted a more natural flow of language and ideas. So,

typically, an opening statement, such as I firmly (or strongly or even passionately) believe, would

be followed by a series of body paragraphs, often introduced by the connectives Firstly,

Secondly, Thirdly — concluding with a paragraph that provided a brief summation of arguments

and ideas presented.

Students in Year 3, and to a lesser extent in Year 5, wrote in fairly straightforward sentence

forms, with complex sentences common, but reflecting a limited range, e.g. because, if, etc. As

far as possible, students should be encouraged to explore the full range of sentence structures,

including the judicious use of short, sharp simple sentences and fragments for effect.

In terms of length of text, students in Years 3 and 5 tended to write a little more than the

persuasive texts of previous years. This was encouraging. It is possible that the suitability of the

prompt contributed to this trend. Obviously, students who were able to make use of a well-chosen

adverb, adjective or nominal group could write with fewer words but with more demonstrable

control of language.

A number of students used more varied openings to their texts to engage the reader. In some

cases, this was productive.

ZZZ! Hear that? That is the sound of someone trying to play with their cat. Everybody knows that

dogs are better than cats. (Year 3 student)

In other cases, the introductions appeared a little contrived, and failed to match the development

of ideas (and tone) in the remainder of the text. Whilst cohesion is only one of the NAPLAN

Writing criteria, the ways in which ideas, vocabulary, paragraphing and sentence formation work

together is important to whole-of-text integration and reader understanding. Students should be

encouraged to focus on ‘big’ ideas and construct their texts accordingly, ensuring consistency

and sincerity of message without unnecessary gimmickry.

Relative areas of improvement from 2016 included the criteria of Audience, Ideas and

Punctuation. The latter could possibly be because of the reduction in the use of direct speech,

more associated with the narrative genre and generally more difficult. In terms of Audience,

students wrote with greater confidence in their ability to express their personality and individuality.

Since choice of Ideas was encouraged through the prompt, more students were able to draw on

areas of interest and subject knowledge, e.g. apps, music, sport, reading genres etc.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 9 of 26

Sample script

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 10 of 26

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 11 of 26

Commentary on sample script

Many students who approached the Year 3/5 prompt tended to use the images provided on the

prompt page as their subject matter. This student chose the more challenging comparison of two

authors, J.K. Rowling and David Walliams, an interesting choice in its own right and a remarkable

one for a student in Year 3.

It is quite difficult for younger students to escape the fairly formulaic approach to a persuasive

text. After all, limitations in vocabulary, breadth of subject knowledge and familiarity with the

genre restrict the capacity for students of this age to explore more original text forms. Whilst this

persuasive text does follow a fairly traditional approach to a NAPLAN demand writing task, the

writer has managed to ‘colour’ the text with an original voice, as well as demonstrate a control

over this field of literature being discussed. The position in support of J.K. Rowling’s work is

clearly established in the introductory paragraph, previewing the body elements of the text that

are subsequently developed (circular plots, unique characters, and originality of stories),

culminating in a positive conclusion that invites the reader to engage with Rowling’s work.

This young writer has experimented with a range of persuasive techniques that do, on the whole,

succeed in engaging the audience and begin to persuade. Features such as emphasis (FULL of

surprises; characters are PERFECT!; SO original), concession and counter argument (David

Walliams books are nice, but they never seem to have the twist that people look for), contrast

(Also, no other book has these characters), and personal address to the reader (So when you get

home, by [sic] a book by her and you WILL AGREE!).

The vocabulary is mature, and is generally contextually appropriate. There is an occasional

clumsiness in construction and language choice (definitely different, positively sure; endings are a

lot better), but these examples are outweighed by an overall strength of vocabulary use, e.g.

original writing; endings are always circular; undeniable, and the irrefutable evidence.

A range of sentence forms add depth and interest to the presentation of argument, particularly

through the use of conjunctions and connectives that tightly link evidence and contention, e.g.

also, therefore, in addition, consequently, on the basis of, so, when. Spelling, punctuation and

paragraphing had a very high degree of accuracy for such a young writer. This is a very

commendable effort.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 12 of 26

Language conventions

Spelling

Results and item descriptions

The percentage columns give the facility rate (percentage correct). These results are based on

provisional data.

Item Answer Qld %

Aust% Description

Proofreading — Error identified

1 grow 85.47 85.97 Correctly spells a one-syllable word with the vowel digraph -ow.

2 bell 86.99 88.41 Correctly spells a one-syllable word ending in -ll.

3 mother 72.02 75.33 Correctly spells a two-syllable word with a short vowel sound.

4 shoe 62.75 66.65 Correctly spells a one-syllable word with an uncommon letter pattern -oe.

5 splashed 77.67 79.02 Correctly spells a one-syllable word with a suffix -ed.

6 soil 46.77 47.16 Correctly spells a one-syllable word with the vowel digraph -oi-.

7 prize 50.35 52.46 Correctly spells a one-syllable word ending in -ze.

8 playground 59.17 58.94 Correctly spells a two-syllable compound word with the vowel digraph -ou-.

9 ocean 36.68 37.55 Correctly spells a two-syllable word with an unstressed final syllable.

10 churches 52.65 52.19 Correctly spells a two-syllable plural word ending in -es.

11 knowledge 23.88 27.46 Correctly spells a two-syllable word with an initial silent k-.

Proofreading — Error not identified

12 trick 70.53 72.58 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a one-syllable word ending in -ck.

13 first 70.22 72.35 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a one-syllable word with the r-influenced vowel -ir-.

14 native 52.94 57.8 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable word ending in -ve.

15 noise 62.50 64.43 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a one-syllable word ending in -se.

16 bucket 43.91 49.3 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable word ending in -et.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 13 of 26

17 fighting 42.86 46.38 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable word with the long vowel sound /aI/ represented by -igh-.

18 everybody 41.55 47 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a multisyllable compound word with an elided syllable.

19 equal 18.88 22.86 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable word ending in an unstressed syllable -al.

20 explained 16.61 18.85 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable word with the vowel digraph -ai-.

21 thread 15.13 15.35 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a one-syllable word with the vowel digraph -ea-.

22 laughter 17.83 20.28 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable word with the digraphs -au- and -gh-.

23 relief 13.84 15.27 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable word with the vowel digraph -ie-.

24 tricycle 7.29 10.11 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a three-syllable word with a prefix tri- added to a base word with the short vowel sound /I/ represented by -y-.

25 strawberries 9.24 11.57 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a three-syllable plural word requiring a -y to -ie- change.

About the test

The 2017 Year 3 test involved the following spelling features:

vowels: thread, relief, laughter, fighting, first, explained, soil, shoe, mother

complex consonants: noise, prize, bucket, trick, ocean, bell

inflections: strawberries, explained, churches, splashed

silent letters: laughter, knowledge, fighting, grow, everybody

compound words: strawberries, everybody, playground

unstressed final syllables: equal, bucket

affixes: tricycle, native

Performance

Year 3 students in 2017 performed similarly to last year. Queensland was below the national

average on all words except playground and churches, though the differences were mostly not

significant. The gap was notable on bucket, everybody, equal, fighting and shoe.

Many students omitted giving any response to the difficult items in the second part of the spelling

test. The highest omission rate was 17% for the word strawberries.

Student error patterns reveal that many of them over-rely on ‘sounding out’ spelling strategies,

especially when confronted with less familiar words, for example ‘soyel’, ‘equle’ and ‘trisicle’.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 14 of 26

The proofreading format used in NAPLAN may lead students to show different spelling behaviour

than when they spell to dictation or when they generate spelling in the course of composing their

own sentences. Teachers should judge the results in this context.

Implications for teaching

Please refer to the extensive discussion of the teaching of spelling in the NAPLAN State Report

for last year, 2016. State reports of previous years are available on the QCAA website.

Testwiseness

Attempt all questions: Students need to pace themselves through the test. They should make an

attempt and move on, leaving enough time to come back to the doubtful answers.

Read the word in context: The first section of the test identifies the misspelled target word with a

circle. But the circled word alone is sometimes misleading. Students must read the word within

the context sentence. For example, some students saw ‘soyl’ and decided the target word was

‘soul’, but the sentence shows that the real target was soil.

Beyond ‘sounding-out’

Phonemic awareness: Students have to learn how the sounds match letters alphabetically in

many single-syllable words. Students need phonemic awareness or the ability to hear all the

sounds inside a word and they need alphabetic knowledge of the sounds of each letter. Next,

patterns containing more than one letter are learned, such as the digraph oi for that diphthong

sound and the CVe pattern whereby a long vowel sound is shown by a final e.

Morphemic awareness: Students then learn about the chunks of letters with grammatical

meanings. These chunks include plural inflections, tense inflections, prefixes and suffixes.

QCAA resources

Please refer to the extensive discussion of the teaching of spelling in the NAPLAN State Report

for last year, 2016. State reports of previous years are available on the QCAA website.

Full reports on student performance and error patterns on each item are published in the

SunLANDA program and as PDF documents at www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-

analysis/test-item-analysis

http://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/test-item-analysis

http://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/test-item-analysis

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 15 of 26

Grammar and punctuation


The percentage columns give the facility rate (percentage correct). These results are based on

provisional data.

Item Answer Qld %

Aust% Description

26 D 92.53 93 Identifies the correct pronoun to complete a simple sentence.

27 A 83.48 84.18 Identifies the correct determiner in a simple sentence.

28 C 79.87 80.71 Identifies the correct conjunction to join two main clauses to form a compound sentence.

29 D 80.83 82.26 Identifies a question.

30 C 79.39 78.7 Identifies the correct contraction for could not.

31 A 78.16 78.8 Identifies the correct dummy subject for a noun clause in a complex sentence.

32 A 60.73 62.13 Identifies an error in verb tense.

33 B 63.23 65.12 Identifies the logical order and connection of clauses in a complex sentence.

34 B 75.57 74.12 Identifies the action verb in a complex sentence.

35 C 56.35 58.35 Identifies the sentence boundaries of a complex sentence.

36 C 50.53 50.48 Identifies a complete sentence.

37 B 72.8 72.63 Identifies an adverb in a complex sentence.

38 B 50.94 51.53 Identifies the correct punctuation of a list in a simple sentence.

39 C 60.77 62.57 Identifies a place noun in a simple sentence.

40 A 49.41 51.16 Identifies a contraction that grammatically matches a sentence.

41 B 35.86 35.88 Identifies the correct use of the article a with a word starting with u- .

42 D 45.09 46.61 Identifies the correct punctuation of a list in a simple sentence.

43 D 50.91 51.63 Identifies a simple command.

44 A 27.01 26.85 Identifies the correct punctuation of a sentence containing reported speech.

45 B 30.47 29.86 Identifies the logical order and connection of clauses in a complex sentence.

46 A 32.23 32.35 Identifies the incorrect use of a preposition instead of a

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 16 of 26

verb in a simple sentence.

47 D 18.46 17.39 Identifies a given word as a noun in a simple sentence.

48 C 24.15 22.4 Identifies the reason for the use of an apostrophe in a simple sentence.

49 D 28.57 27.94 Identifies a contraction that grammatically matches a sentence.

50 D 6.83 6.79 Identifies two pronouns in a compound sentence.

About the test

The NAPLAN Language conventions items test sentence-level, clause-level and word-level skills.

The test does not cover the curriculum. Instead, it tells how a large number of students perform

on a small range of tasks. Standardised tests can, however, suggest broad trends across a

cohort. At the level of individual students, NAPLAN results can supplement classroom

assessments and guide teachers to important points of grammar and punctuation that need

revisiting.

The 2017 Year 3 test involved the following features:

Pronoun use (Items 26, 31, 50)

Apostrophes used for contraction and possession (Items 30, 40, 48)

Verb and verb tense (Items 34, 46)

Articles and determiners (Items 27, 41).

These areas have been familiar components of previous Year 3 Language conventions tests.

For information about the full range of grammar knowledge that Year 3 students should have,

refer to the Australian Curriculum English.

Performance

The performance of Queensland Year 3 students in Grammar and punctuation was comparable

with the national cohort. Queensland students were closer to the national mean on this strand,

compared with the other strands of Spelling, Reading and Numeracy that were also assessed in a

multiple-choice format.

Strongest results were achieved in Item 34 (identifying an action verb), Item 47 (identifying a

noun – arrival) and Item 48 (apostrophe of contraction).

Weakest results when compared with national facility rates were in Item 29 (identifying the need

for a question mark), Item 33 (correct ordering of clauses), and Item 35 (correctly punctuating a

complex sentence). It should be said that these results, both strongest and weakest, were not

significantly different from national means.

A pleasing feature of the performance of Queensland Year 3 students on this year’s test was the

relative strength of results in the final set of items, which tended to be the most difficult. Relative

to national means, Queensland students were stronger on 6 of the final 7 items on the test.

Undoubtedly, teacher emphasis on an ordered, systematic and persistent approach to the whole

test by students is being rewarded.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 17 of 26


Grammar and punctuation is not a separate area but a component of reading and writing. The

contexts of language in use are pivotal to a full understanding of how syntax, grammatical and

punctuation conventions operate. Wherever possible, meaning and purpose in texts should be

emphasised, noting how particular language conventions contribute to making meaning. Of

course at Year 3 level, the systematic introduction of punctuation and the more straightforward

grammatical features is essential. Teachers are encouraged to revisit things that NAPLAN

targets, as they often represent fundamental conventions and usage.

Metalanguage

Success in the 2017 Language conventions test relied to some extent on a degree of

metalinguistic knowledge and understanding. This feature of the test has become more apparent

in recent years, and is also significant in testing at Years 5, 7 and 9.

Terminology like contraction (Item 30), verb (Items 32 & 34), command (Item 43), apostrophe

(Item 48), pronoun (Item 50) and direct speech (Item 44) are now commonplace in NAPLAN

Language conventions tests. Clearly, the teaching of these terms is essential for many reasons

other than NAPLAN success. A common language between teacher and student, student and

student and even test constructor and student is an enabler for student language improvement.

However, knowledge of grammatical terms, by itself, is not sufficient for students’ language

growth. Students must be encouraged to see language in context, to look at linguistic concepts

within the frame of making meaning, and even to recognise how parts of speech can fulfil

different roles. This latter understanding is less significant at Year 3 level, of course, when

foundational concepts are established.

Testwiseness

Although NAPLAN is a test of written, standard, Australian English, it often uses example

sentences that seem to be from informal, spoken situations. Familiarity with diverse types of texts

may help students to be more confident in viewing the NAPLAN items. Guide students through

notable grammar and punctuation in a wide selection of reading materials, including texts that are

challenging and divergent in form.

QCAA resources

Please refer to SunLANDA, which is available to schools via the QCAA Portal on the QCAA

website through the school BIC and password. The SunLANDA program displays the school’s

results but also links to detailed analysis of every item on the NAPLAN test. The analyses include

Australian Curriculum links, language resource texts and other QCAA materials. The item

analysis is also available collected into PDF format on the NAPLAN pages of the QCAA website.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 18 of 26

Reading


The percentage columns give the proportion of correct answers (facility rates). These results are

based on provisional data.

Item Answer Qld %

Aust% Description

Safe in the storm

1 D 94.23 94.61 Locates directly stated information in a very simple narrative.

2 D 91.32 91.94 Links directly stated information across sentences in a very simple narrative.

3 A 90.43 91.34 Interprets directly stated information in a very simple narrative.

4 B 92.05 92.78 Locates directly stated information in a very simple narrative.

5 A 67.71 70.45 Identifies the purpose of an apostrophe in a very simple narrative.

6 C 74.6 76.01 Identifies the meaning of the title in a very simple narrative.

Getting to school

7 C 59.8 62.96 Interprets directly stated information in a simple persuasive text.

8 B 82.29 83.88 Interprets directly stated information in a simple persuasive text.

9 B 77 80.13 Interprets directly stated information in a simple persuasive text.

10 A 58.81 59.57 Interprets a character's motivations in a simple persuasive text.

11 C 54.27 55.25 Interprets information from different sections of a simple persuasive text.

12 B 48.66 49.46 Identifies the main idea of a simple persuasive text.

Bubbles

13 D 70.89 70.97 Identifies the first-person narrator in a poem.

14 B 44.16 44.57 Interprets the meaning of vocabulary in a poem.

15 D 43.63 42.3 Interprets the meaning of a phrase in a poem.

16 C 73.78 74.51 Interprets the meaning of a description in a poem.

17 A 73.06 75.14 Interprets the meaning of a sentence from descriptive language in a poem.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 19 of 26

18 B 79.73 81.1 Infers the meaning of a description from context in a poem.

19 A 50.09 51.29 Analyses information across stanzas in a poem.

Classroom robot designer

20 A 35.39 37.02 Identifies the main purpose of an advertisement.

21 B 22.7 24.07 Identifies the main purpose of the first paragraph of an advertisement.

22 D 35.62 37.45 Infers the purpose of a detail in a section of an advertisement.

23 D 29.08 31.45 Analyses the tone of the first paragraph in an advertisement.

24 C 30.82 31.56 Analyses information across the text in an advertisement.

25 D 36.22 37.62 Interprets the meaning of a phrase in an advertisement.

26 D 45.5 48.82 Locates directly stated information in an advertisement.

Something to write on

27 B 52.31 55.58 Identifies the genre of an information report.

28 A 38.27 37.94 Locates directly stated information in an information report.

29 C 30.02 30.11 Infers a key idea from a paragraph in an information report.

30 C 57.71 58.74 Infers a key idea in an information report.

31 D 28.25 28.65 Links directly stated information across sentences in an information report.

32 B 29.14 28.72 Interprets the meaning of a phrase in an information report.

Tiny houses

33 AE 22.24 23.99 Identifies the purposes of an information text.

34 C 24.06 24.06 Identifies an opinion in an information text.

35 D 24.32 25.94 Identifies the main idea of a paragraph in an information text.

36 AD 16.07 16.96 Links an illustration to information in an information text.

37 A 34.22 35.54 Links information across sentences in an information text.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 20 of 26

About the test

In 2017, the Year 3 Reading test consisted of 37 items based on six reading magazine units with

the following text-types or genres:

information —Something to write on (about paper) and Tiny houses

persuasion — Getting to school (a classroom discussion) and Classroom robot designer (an

advertisement)

poetry — Bubbles

imaginative narrative — Safe in the storm.

Most items had a four-option, multiple-choice format. However, Item 33 required students to

choose two options out of a possible five. As expected, there was a pattern of increasing difficulty

across the test.

Performance

It was pleasing to see that 95.6% of Queensland students performed at or above the national

minimum standard, compared to 95.0% nationally.

The facility rates for the first unit, Safe in the storm, were relatively high, due to the prevalence of

items requiring students to locate explicitly stated information in the text. Facility rates decreased

when students had to make more text-based inferences in the next unit, Getting to school. Item

12, for example, required students to infer the unmentioned question to which the students in the

text are responding. The lower facility rate of 48.66% for this item suggests that students need to

develop their ability to make inferences. This pattern continued throughout the unit, Bubbles, with

students performing fairly strongly in literal questions, but less so for inference questions.

Classroom robot designer had the lowest facility rates of all the units in this year’s test. Items 21

and 23 proved the most difficult in this unit. Item 21 asked students to identify the subject matter

of the first paragraph, which is a fairly basic text-based interpretation. The low facility rate for this

item might be attributable to the students’ lack of familiarity with the ‘three Rs’ idiom. Most

students believed that the first paragraph of the text was asking whether robots could help

students to learn. However, this question is asked explicitly only in the second paragraph.

Students need to consider the entire text when responding to text-based inference questions.

For Item 23, more students chose option B over the key, option D. Items that require students to

identify the tone of a text, such as this one, often present challenges for students. Perhaps the

general low facility rates for this unit stem from the fact that the purpose of this text – to persuade

students to enter a competition to help design classroom robots – might not have been apparent

to students.

Something to write on was a fairly complex text and was a link unit that also appeared in the Year

5 Reading test. Most students could identify the genre of the text (Item 27) and make a simple

text-based inference regarding the advantages of paper over stone as a writing material.

However, items which required students to connect information from different parts of the text

were handled less successfully by students. Item 31 (28.25%), for example, asked where the

word paper comes from. Although the text states explicitly that ‘paper’ comes from the word

‘papyrus’, students needed to return to an earlier section of the text to confirm that papyrus is a

reed plant.

Facility rates for Tiny houses were very low. To a large extent the low facility rate might be due to

the prevalence of items requiring students to make inferences regarding the purposes of the text

(Item 33), the main idea of a paragraph (Item 35) and the purpose of an illustration in an

information text (Item 36). However, the difficulty of Items 33 and 36 was compounded by the fact

that students had to choose two options. Although in both cases most students chose two

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 21 of 26

options, only a relatively small percentage chose the two correct responses. Partial marks are not

awarded in NAPLAN tests.

In summary, Year 3 students demonstrated a high capacity to answer literal (recall and

translation) type items. However, there were only 13 items of this type out of 37 on the paper, and

most of these (12) were in the first three texts in the test. But items that involved purpose, tone

and character had lower facility rates than literal and lower-order inferential items. This is

because they required higher-order reasoning and comprehension. Students had to form an

understanding of the whole text as well as pay attention to subtle clues in the text that help them

make the inferences.


The low facility rates on non-literal items demonstrate the importance of giving students strategies

to help them make inferences as they read, i.e. to make statements about the unknown based on

the known. Items that involve purpose, main idea, theme or tone of the text (in whole or part),

challenge students. They have to understand the whole of the text to answer the item.

The challenge for teachers is to get students to read a variety of authentic and well-written texts.

The teacher guides students through reading stages. In the first stage, we take an overview.

What sort of text does it look like? What does it seem to be about? What do I think already about

the topic? Use discussion groups to explore existing ideas on the text topic so that students can

be on the lookout for what the text says that differs from what they expect.

Help students through a scanned reading of the text to identify the main structural components.

Note how the parts of the text contribute towards a main idea and to the meaning of the whole.

This is the time to discuss patterns (e.g. cause and effect, contrast, comparison). Teachers are

the facilitators of this process of annotating and discussing texts; they are not the leaders. Their

focus should be on:

• modelling a love of books and reading

• finding authentic texts which appeal to children of that age

• providing a range of genres and a range of narrative texts, from traditional texts to texts

with postmodern elements

• promoting higher-order thinking about texts

• reading aloud to students to promote reading for pleasure

• developing an awareness of how the parts of the text combine to create a whole through

both semantic (links between the ideas) and syntactic (grammatical links) cohesion

• encouraging students to make inferences as they read (an informed guess backed by

evidence from the text)

• encouraging students to see connections between the text and their own knowledge and

experience, between different things within the text and between this text and other texts in a

similar genre or on similar subject matter

• encouraging students to be active readers and make connections between the text and

their own knowledge, experience and feelings.

At Year 3, this structural knowledge and approach needs to be activated delicately. A number of

students are still grappling with basic word and grammar decoding issues. In a test setting,

students will handle the distractors in the items much better if they are clear about the subject

matter and the purpose of the text before they proceed to the items.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 22 of 26

Students need practice with persuasive texts as they need to notice how modality is managed by

the writer and how this affects certainty and obligation. Being able to discern a text’s tone, mood

and purpose are always very challenging for students in persuasive and narrative texts at all

levels. Students should be encouraged to read with a pencil and highlighters in hand, to identify

main ideas, visual and text features (e.g. figures of speech, use of data). It is not too early to get

students in Year 3 to check for fallacies and persuasive techniques, to draw attention to emotive

language and literary techniques and to check for comparisons and contrasts within the text.

Teach students to identify the main parts of a text. Show how to locate the main idea in each part.

How do the main ideas relate to the author’s purpose and what they hope the text will achieve?

This skill is targeted in Item 35, where students had to identify the main idea from paragraph 2 of

the Tiny houses text.

Teachers need to encourage students to read for pleasure and recreation in order to extend their

knowledge of themselves and the world around them. Reading develops a reader’s empathy for

people in different situations. The complexity of the reading process is made visible when

students discuss texts and share how they arrive at their personal understanding of the text.

Testwiseness

The stimulus texts that are used in reading tests are usually extracts from larger works or texts

created to look like extracts. Students should be aware that these will be texts where some things

are not clear. They should learn not to panic if the subject matter is not completely accessible, as

in a poem such as Bubbles.

QCAA resources

Teachers can view school-specific performance information through the QCAA’s SunLANDA

Online program. SunLANDA Online is available through the School Portal on the QCAA home

page. State schools can also access this content through OneSchool. SunLANDA Online displays

the performance of classes, subgroups, and individuals within the school and compares the

school’s performance with that of the state and nation. Most importantly, hyperlinked to each item

are analyses and teaching ideas.

QCAA 2015, Beyond NAPLAN: How to read challenging texts, Beyond NAPLAN series,

http://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/naplan_read_challenging_texts.pdf

http://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/naplan_read_challenging_texts.pdf

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 23 of 26

Numeracy


The numeracy strands are abbreviated as follows: Number and Algebra (NA); Measurement and

Geometry (MG); Statistics and Probability (SP). All items are worth one score point. For the

purpose of this report, the SunLANDA strands of number and algebra, functions and patterns

have been combined as number and algebra to reflect the Australian Curriculum strands.

The percentage columns give facility rates (percentage correct). These results are based on

provisional data.

Strand Answer

Qld %

Aust %

Description

1 NA C 96.84 97.14 Counts the number of parts on an object.

2 MG B 93.52 94.2 Identifies the container that is half full.

3 NA 19 88.68 91.01 Adds numbers to less than 20.

4 NA C 64.92 68.23 Represents multiplication as repeated addition.

5 NA A 84.77 85.93 Selects a numerical representation of a number written in words.

6 SP B 90.41 89.67 Identifies which event is most likely to occur.

7 NA B 86.72 87.76 Determines half of the number of items in a display.

8 SP B 85.37 86.13 Interprets a table and identifies matching data in a tally table.

9 NA 23 43.55 45.82 Solves a subtraction problem.

10 MG A 78.19 78.45 Identifies the effect of a one-step flip.

11 NA 65 63.87 65.8 Counts a small collection of notes.

12 NA E 43.54 44.18 Calculates multiples of a unit fraction to complete a whole.

13 NA D 59.45 61.92 Uses an addition pattern to determine the sum of the next two terms in a sequence.

14 MG D 64.15 65.67 Adds half an hour to the time on a clock.

15 NA 47 51.4 55.8 Adds three one- and two-digit numbers.

16 SP C 70.04 71.21 Reads information from a simple two-way table.

17 MG 13 76.89 79.15 Measures the length of an object using another object as the informal units.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 24 of 26

18 NA B 59.97 59.58 Locates three, two-digit numbers on a number line.

19 MG C 67.98 68.87 Compares the weights of three objects using a balance scale.

20 NA 325 55.56 58.28 Counts efficiently by using groups of hundreds, tens, and ones.

21 NA A 39.65 42.99 Selects the correct division equation represented by a model.

22 NA 5 39.97 42.32 Solves a simple problem using groups of equal sets to represent division.

23 SP C 55.48 56.84 Identifies a question that would result in the given column graph.

24 NA D 27.27 28.83 Identifies the correct number sentence to model a ‘how many more’ problem.

25 NA D 42.98 45.11 Selects the correct number sentence to solve a problem using multiplication.

26 MG 3;4 26.23 28.26 Compares features of different three-dimensional models.

27 NA 7100 18.92 21.95 Represents a four-digit number using words and digits.

28 MG D 28.03 27.54 Follows simple directions to locate a position.

29 NA 30 22.84 26.12 Solves a multi-step problem using the multiplication facts of two, three and five.

30 MG B 31.57 33.91 Compares the capacity of objects using informal units.

31 MG B 20.45 20.65 Compares weights read from an analog scale by subtraction.

32 SP A 30.58 32.62 Selects a picture graph to represent given data where one picture represents many data values.

33 MG 4:20 5.92 7.88 Calculates the duration of time in a multi-step problem.

34 NA 140 5.58 6.84 Completes a number sentence showing two additions of equal value.

35 NA 53 11.31 13.98 Adds and subtracts two- and three-digit numbers to solve a multi-step problem.

36 NA 60 3.26 3.8 Solves a problem with three unknowns using addition.

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 25 of 26

About the test

The NAPLAN Numeracy test consists of 36 items covering concepts and skills from three strands.

This year there were 21 Number and algebra, 10 Measurement and geometry and 5 Statistics

and probability items.

Items with notable challenges for students included:

Item 5 and 27 – recognise and represent numbers with internal zeros

Item 10 – translating a shape with internal shapes

Item 12 – adding reference to 2 tubes where some students assumed one tube

Item 17 – use of informal units to measure an object and not starting at the equivalent ‘zero’ point

(in previous years the ‘broken ruler’ was used)

Item 18 – students had to find multiple numbers, not listed in order, on a number line

Item 28 – semantically demanding

Item 33 – students had to factor in the clause, ‘…which was 15 minutes late.’

Performance

Queensland students performed better than the national facility rates in three items (6, 18, 28).

The number of Queensland students answering the items correctly ranged from 97% for the first

item to 3% for Item 36. This trend is typical of NAPLAN numeracy test performance.

While the majority of students attempted to answer all test items, a number omitted the more

difficult items towards the end of the test, particularly items in the constructed response format

rather than the multiple-choice format. These items are designed to differentiate student

performance for the more proficient students. The challenging items provide those students with

opportunities to apply their existing knowledge and skills to solve problems.

Typically, item complexity was increased by presenting the problem in a manner that students

may not have been familiar with, the addition of some complicating detail or targeting known

weaknesses. For example, Item 33 required the students to use their concept of ‘time’ to solve a

time-related problem that contained some subtle complexities. It required an understanding of

time, an ability to conceptualise the problem by processing all of the information contained (not

just key words), and then solve the problem. Students with a good knowledge of a range of

concepts who are confident in using these in a variety of contexts are more likely to solve these

items.

Item 36 was more demanding than other items (3% answered correctly), but the omit rate

remained the same (8%). It is likely that this was because the numbers and words in the item

were student friendly and the topic was engaging. This was sufficient to cause more students to

attempt it than might have otherwise.

Schools and teachers can use overall performance data for Queensland and Australia to

compare against their own data in SunLANDA. They can also use this to evaluate how difficult a

particular aspect of numeracy was for all Queensland Year 3 students. If teachers combine this

with similar data from previous NAPLAN tests, they can judge for themselves the teaching

priorities for various concepts and skills.

For example, many teachers would expect most Year 3 students to be able to perform a

subtraction operation with two-digit numbers; however, the data shows that when subtraction is

presented as a missing addend, as it was for Item 35, many students made an error. They don’t

link addition to subtraction. They have not internalised the inverse connection between the two

operations. This year only 11% of Queensland students answered this correctly, and 8% failed to

NAPLAN



December 2017

Page 26 of 26

provide a response. Item 35 also had added complexity. Students had to calculate the total

rainfall in June and July before subtracting from total winter rainfall.

Teachers may want to look at their class results and compare how their students performed on

this item. ‘Comparison’ and ‘missing addend subtraction’ problems are usually more challenging

than the straight ‘take-away’ problems.


There was evidence that students understood basic mathematics content – for example, that

fractions are parts of a whole – but were unable to use this knowledge to solve a problem.

Teachers should begin to incorporate problem-solving into their maths lessons to assist students

to become familiar with solving problems related to the maths they are learning at the time rather

than dealing with problem solving as a separate concept. Including problem-solving strategies

into mathematics lessons more routinely may help students link the concepts and skills of

mathematics to problem-solving in a numeracy context.

Testwiseness

There is evidence that students are scanning for key words or only for numerals to process.

Teachers should be wary of teaching students to solve problems based on key words. In a test

situation, this is often misleading. In Item 24 for example, it is likely that many students answered

incorrectly because they did not recognise this as a subtraction problem due to the language

used – ‘how many more?’

Furthermore, there are difficulties with this strategy for older students when crucial information is

inferred and not made explicit. Students will benefit more from strategies and tools that promote

an understanding of the problem through visualising or use of models.

Student responses to the distractor options in the items show that many of them are not routinely

checking their answers for reasonableness. Students should be encouraged to make it a habit to

consider their answers for reasonableness.

While the omission rates were not as high in Year 3 as in some of the other year levels, many

students may benefit from hints about how to pace their test experience to allow more time for the

most challenging questions at the end of the test.

QCAA resources

Please refer to SunLANDA, which is available to schools via the QCAA Portal on the QCAA

website through the school BIC and password. The SunLANDA program displays the school’s

results but also links to detailed analysis of every item on the NAPLAN test. The analyses include

Australian Curriculum links, language resource texts and other QCAA materials. The item

analysis is also available collected into PDF format on the NAPLAN pages of the QCAA website.

NAPLAN State report – Year 3...NAPLAN State report – Year 3 Queensland Curriculum & Assessment...

Documents

Transcript of NAPLAN State report – Year 3...NAPLAN State report – Year 3 Queensland Curriculum & Assessment...